SotB XXIII: Blurring the Line
Balken Oppen has uncovered another facility operating under the Institute for the Advancement of Galactic Technology. In a quest for answers involving his last encounter with the organization, the scientist has enlisted the help of his fellow Agents. Agents Session 1 * Erdogan Cael * Fai Mei * Hawk * R0C-K4 * Rogesh Vai Session 2 * Durin Boge * Kii'Vera * Nin'pei * Nogg Nubo * Shorbecca * Zeevo the Hutt Mission Report Summary by Ben The crew, while lounging aboard the Sunflare, are called to the cockpit where they find Balken waiting. He shows them an image of a backwater planet, so obscure that it doesn’t even have a proper name, and explains that the Institute (responsible for the station on which Loraam and Mekan’s experiments went haywire) has developed a new facility there. Having witnessed the misfortune caused by their previous endeavors, Balken insists that the team head there to investigate. After using the astrogation data supplied by Balken, the team arrives in orbit of the unnamed planet, finding numerous defensive satellites in the space around it. They seem to ignore the Sunflare, allowing the agents to land near the installation itself. As they set down, one of the facility’s droids approaches. Nogg recognizes it as one of the droids that maintained one of Balken’s experiments on the station, dubbed TBS. The droid explains that he had impersonated one of Balken’s colleagues in order to gain his attention and draw him here. TBS explains that the three Institute officials from Facility 13 have arrived here, at Facility 07, and have shut off most access and confined themselves to one of the compound’s buildings. TBS also explains that the reason the agents were able to land was because TBS intentionally flagged them as Institute investigators. In order to keep up appearances, the team is to investigate as needed. He hands the group a datapad, displaying the following information: Dr. Boreal - Terraforming Dr. Oologa - Bioadaptation x Dr. Braav - Simulation PC-003 - Artifical Communities x Clan Terfu - FTLT x Dr. Idan - Special R&A x The group decides to first head to the Faster Than Light Travel experiment headed by Clan Terfu. Boarding the facility shuttle, the team is ferried to what appears to be a mine entrance and summarily greeted by a quiet protocol droid that beckons them inside. Deep into the lab, they find a Drall in proper laboratory dress who introduces herself as Matriarch Terfu. She explains that Clan Terfu has been hired to investigate more advanced means of hyperspace travel, particularly a ‘Spatial Fold Drive’ that allows ships to fold space to travel between two points instantaneously. She complains that the new assistants she’s been sent aren’t very effective, and shows the team a malfunctioning device. Nogg takes a look at it, identifies the problem and promptly gets it back into working shape. Suitably impressed, the Matriarch offers the group a functioning piece of technology that they had developed: a small drive that can make short hyperspace jumps almost instantly. On good terms now, the team questions her regarding the other doctors. She expresses disgust for Doctor Idan in particular. With that in mind, the crew boards the shuttle again and heads toward Idan’s lab next. Idan’s lab appears to be built into the face of a cliff and made of stone. Landing at the edge of a pier jutting from the top of the cliff, the team is first approached by a group of researchers clad in robes, who lead them inside. The stone on the walls is shaped oddly, and induces a state of exhaustion if stared at for too long. Coming into one of the inner chambers, the team sees a bearded man with long, black hair with streaks of gray. Something in the air causes Nogg to fall unconscious. Worried, the doctor orders his assistants to load the Sullustan onto a table where he can rest. Zeevo lectures to Idan, the bearded man, about maintaining proper decorum, but Idan sidesteps the accusations and offers to show the team a demonstration of what he’s been working on. He enters what appears to be a meditative state, and the room’s light dims while a stone beside him begins to lift into the air. Strange runes begin to glow around a nearby gate, and something resembling a portal opens up, displaying a hellish landscape on the other side. Zeevo yells for him to stop, but Idan is too absorbed in his ‘experiment’. Something resembling a floating blob of flesh and eyes floats through the portal soon after, with the gateway shutting behind it. It delivers a swift tentacle smack to Idan. One of the tentacles atop its mass starts gathering the dim light from the room before firing off a ball of energy toward Shorbecca, Nin’pei tries to sneak around to the creature’s side, but it strikes at him with a tentacle. He dodges out of the way, but the strike topples over a nearby bookshelf, burying him in a pile of rotten wood and books. Shorbecca unslings his missile tube and launches a rocket toward the creature, which ducks under it, but the agile piece of ordnance swings back around to keep its lock. Waking up from his cloudy state, Nogg sees the commotion and pulls up his repulsor rifle, shooting a wave of concussive force that clips a shelf near the creature, pinning it down before the missile finds purchase, detonating and turning the hellish monster into a pile of charred mush. Upon investigating the area, they find the portal is made of a rare, incredibly durable element and that Idan has perished. With the help of Nin’pei, Shorbecca pulls the frame of the portal from the wall, putting it out of commission at least temporarily. Abandoning Idan’s lab after warning the assistants to leave, the team boards the shuttle and heads out to Dr. Oologa’s Bioadaptation lab. A protocol droid guides the agents in, showing them to a man who is in the process of watching over a test subject inside a spherical tank. He happily introduces himself as Dr. Oologa. The doctor is in good spirits and explains that his lab is very secure. Seeing Shorbecca’s injuries at the hands of Idan’s research, he takes the team into a medical lab where he does his best to fix up the wookiee’s wounds. Proceeding with the tour, he shows the team to a room containing a gray blob. He explains that it is a mass that can take any shape. Oologa asks for a volunteer, and Boge steps forward. The blob touches the Twi’lek briefly and begins to take his shape. The group takes turns experimenting with the blob, changing its shape while Oologa explains that it does have some form of sapience. He also confesses that it has taken almost the entirety of the facility’s funding to develop. Boge requests that the doctor allow the agents to take the experiment in order to study it further, referring to it as the Morphoid. Oologa reluctantly agrees, but the Morphoid itself seems hesitant to leave. Shorbecca and Nogg do their best to soothe the morphing experiment, convincing it to stroll along with them. Heading back to the shuttle, they choose to head to PC-003’s Artifical Communities experiment next. Flying in over the arid landscape, below they notice that most, if not all, vegetation and life has been eradicated. Ahead of them, there is a large, glowing city with no one to be seen on foot. As the crew lands, they find themselves in the middle of a massive forum of droids, who are chattering back and forth about the state of the city. The leader, seemingly PC-003, approaches the team and apologizes that they had to arrive during a difficult time. Some droids express concern that PC is entertaining the new arrivals during their deliberations, but PC waves them off and offers to take the agents on a tour of the city. After Nin’pei’s request to see their maintenance bay, PC performs some requested modifications by removing the gank’s lips and adding a port for his respirator. After witnessing that horror, they continue on with the tour. Heading back to the central tower, PC is apprehended by a group of armed droids who threaten PC to approve the city’s colonization efforts. Durin attempts to calm them down, but the droids have had it with talk and open fire. Having the quicker draw, Shorbecca unloads his rifle into two of the droids, badly damaging them before Kii brings his pistol to bear on one of the droids that had backed up to find a better position. Boge steps in again to calm the droids down, and they hesitantly comply by lowering their weapons. Nogg helps to repair two of the heavily damaged droids, who give him their thanks before dragging themselves off. PC seems pleased that the situation could be resolved peacefully. Happy with their ‘inspection,’ the team leaves the droid city after a call from Balken and TBS, claiming that they have cracked the code to the spire. Upon arrival, they see the droids from TBS’s experiment at Facility 13, in addition to both Balken and TBS. They proceed to the spire together and gain access with the codes Balken had recovered. Heading up the elevator to the spire’s peak, where the control center is, the group emerges to find a cluster of pods in the center of a room. Inside three of the pods are the human, Devaronian and Twi’lek that they had been seeking. Nogg inspects the pods and finds that they are direct uplinks to a communications network, wherein the users can be sustained cryogenically while still engaging in business across the galaxy. Balken and Nin’pei hook themselves into the pods while Nogg creates a firewall around their stations. Inside, they see a series of mask-like faces that seem displeased with what’s happened. In orbit, some of the defensive satellites bring their guns to bear on the central control station. The four faces reveal a coiling circle of numbers and ask for them to complete the sequence. Nogg calls in to warn Balken of the satellites, and he quickly rattles off the final numbers of the sequence. They’re released from the pods, and promptly take the elevator back down to evacuate as soon as possible. With the cybernetic agents satisfied, however, the satellites go back into standby and don’t disturb the Sunflare as it rises back up into the upper atmosphere. On questioning Balken, he reveals the calculation he had completed was an ancient astrogation solution that points to a place in the unknown regions of space. He asks Shorbecca about the morphoid, but Shorbecca shuts him down, reluctant to give Balken reason to keep it around for study. SotB 023